So "Like..Where to start Dude” as they love these 2
words so much on that side. My head is almost
exploding ready to pop, I get so excited. What a
strange animal it is/was.

It lies dormant, gestating in the back of peoples
heads it seems for some 300 days a year, Is given
birth to, grows at a massive rate, living a beautiful
colourful life for a brief 7 days before sadly dying a
painful burning wreck of a death, only to reincarnate
itself from the minds of new energized burners in
about another 300 days time.

There is a serious amount of work/money people put
into there structures, art, costumes, camps, mutant
vehicles etc these are a very passionate people, who
though scary and sad as it may sound to some of you,
live there life for this event, or perhaps this is an
extension of there normal lifestyle, what ever, but in
essence this is what makes it so different to the many
other large scale gigs I have been to so far. As
temporary as it is. It seems to leave a stain on
people minds. Like they can make a difference or
something.

So my thoughts are abit all over the place, so bare
with me as best you can on this one, I'm sure to be a
bit clumsy in my ranting’s, as the many other articles
I have read, have tried to capture the many faces of
this event. I'll give it a go and try to play the
observation ist, probing, making massive
generalizations, and touting insightful comment as
best as my vocab allows me.

To put this massive show in context, I think the place
to start is hence America, and some sort of
understanding of Americans. You may have mixed
feelings, It seems you either love these folk or
despise them because of there politics or there
perceived over confidence, inward looking, and a make
a big noise, Be the biggest you can manage kind of
attitude etc. That is of course is a very harsh
statement in my experience. I found the many people I
spoke with to be very warm, concerned, and big
hearted, and most of all they seem to have a love for
life and wanting to make it a better place, "a SURE we
can do it" spin on things. Pick the most out there
free-thinking extremely creative versions of these
people, (about 32 thousand I'm told this year) and
stick them in one place (a gnarly desert) and you have
a bubble of amazing crazy beautiful people who want to
show you something very cool. And O.K yeah, they are
all about being big, BiG, BIG. But hey most of them
even knew where little N.Z was, We are not so small
after all aye. Yip so I fell in love with a part of
this country and It's people, I'll admit it no
worries.

One of the really nice things making it so different,
is firstly it is completely stripped of commercialism,
an excellent starting point when it comes to America,
The only things you can buy out there is ice and
coffee, the life blood of someone we know. (I could
give you lots of advice if you want to go , but all
I'll say is do your home work before you go, Even by
N.Z standards this is "Hard Camping". Like I have
never experience before. Your sure not to die or
anything cus everyone is so caring out there and looks
out for one another, but it's about giving not taking
if you can help it and it's best to be sorted.)

They actively encourage you to cover all labels on
clothing, cars, structures etc, anywhere you see
marketing/advertising posted on, which is pretty much
everywhere right, to the point of being laughable and
actively the opposed to. i.e The Mac Devil Burger
Camp, The Barbie Doll Death Camp, where you can
barbecue your very own perfectly proportioned Ken and
Barbie doll, there is an abundance of politically
correct theme camps here for sure.

There is also a strange playful "Black" humor
undercurrent running swiftly through this party. In a
satirical Simpson meets our "Wearable arts" kind of
fashion, As true art should be. Nothing is sacred out
here, the most clever, smart, imaginative minds have
been put hard to the task of having a good laugh at
there country and western society, becoming a major
point for alot of these people to chew on all year and
then build something that crystallizes there opinion.

For the most part it's of course just about "having
fun and making something beautiful to look at" to the
extreme. and party they do, do well in this country,
they are expert in light and fluffy. Take Disney World
for example. Just Big kids, Most just want to play and
not grow up.

And of course mixed in with that playfulness is a very
sexy vibe overtone. Who could believe there could be
so many ways to show off your body in the crazy-est
colourful costumes show it all way I have ever seen.
It's intoxicating to the point your reference as to
what you thought was normal behavior may well never be
the same again. You can get totally swept away with
the momentum of this place by the end of it, Social
conditioning and the world out side can be hard to
handle on returning to the real world, so much so,
they organize these decompression party's to help you
adjust. It is so much about assaulting your ever
sense, Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, Taste there is some
theme camp designed to expose you to a whole new
dimension extreme and disorientate you for months to
come. By-God do they have some bright lights there,
I'm sure the back of my retinas have been damaged for
life. The brightest, shiniest, colourful light wins,
wear them on your person, attach them to some crazy
vehicle, sync them up with the wickedest sounds herd,
if you can light up the whole bloody desert, your the
winner.

And of course not to forget "fire and heat" an air
splitting propane explosive fire ball goes screaming
high into the air what seems every few seconds out on
the absolutely massive field called the "Playa".
Being somewhat of a pyromaniac I found it hard to pull
myself away from the man-made fire tornado, which
twisted and and curled high up into the nigh sky with
mini fire vortexes spiraling off in all directions
truly beautiful to watch.

It's almost hard to get a dance groove on as there is
so much to see and do you are easily distracted by
some amazing art installation that is emanating and
jabbering away in distorted twisted audio and visual
electronica, being a sound designer some of my
favourite stuff could be found way out on the
outskirts of the playa where it's almost quiet, a
single chair with a pair of head phones, put them on
and some very well crafted sound sculptures to be
heard in a very understated way, As much as this place
is about very large scale, there are also those who
appreciate the small here as well.

There is movement everywhere you look, Each night it
builds in crescendo till the night of "The Burn" when
it just goes out of control in an orgy of fire and
partying like I have never seen before. You feel part
of this thing as you have been there and watched it
grow, and become apart of it. It's a lovely long
journey to ride.

Even the hardest of hard-asses is sure to have a smile
on his dial at this place there is something for
everyone, even the very sad, as when you get to the
last night and the burning of The Temple, A somber
night, when the partying stops and the thousands
become quite for a time, This absolutely massive
structure is built during the event over the 6 days
and takes form like some ancient Asian palace. People
write there issues , there broken poems to lost
friends, photos of loved ones no longer, regrets, all
manner of conditions that oppress us humans in some
way are attached here and are set ablaze on this
night, it's the closes thing I've seen western society
of this demographic come to being spiritual. It is a
moment of seriousness amongst all this partying that I
found most unexpected. It was deep I have to say.

Then it begins to die. Your camping neighbors, your
now newest closes friends who looked after you so
well, possible new relationships head off back to
there homes. Truly the hardest part of this gig, it
tears you up as this place is so temporal, and throw
away relationships as you know are not what I am
about, so it leaves you only one option left, damn it
I'll just have to come back again next year.

Pictures tell you so much more so have a look at these
if your keen. You may need a fast connection but I
hope you enjoy some of the moments, there are many
more professional photos at there web site:

Hey many thanks people. Yeah abit of a rant Blah Blah Blah... I know I do tend to go on. But how is one to tell it all in a single breath, Just had to get it out.
Sorry about the dead photo link. Seems these Yahoo alburns die after 90 days. Copy and paste this puppy below into your browser, this one should do the trick I hope... but if not and you are still really keen drop us a line and I'll surly send you them direct. It's worth a look and if you know abit about some of them I'd be keen to hear some info, never got to see the fire car going proper.
Enjoy
Krispiss

P.S If ya ever heading out to N. Z drop us a line and we can hook you up with the ex burner folks up and down New Zealand